SpaceX Prepares To Test Broadband Satellite Saturday Written 14 February 2018

CNET News reports that a week after testing its new Falcon Heavy rocket, SpaceX is preparing to “blast off another test of a long-awaited new product.” The first two demonstration satellites in the company’s “Starlink” program will be “launched into orbit aboard a Falcon 9 on Saturday, according to correspondence between the company and the Federal Communications Commission.” Starlink aims to provide “low-cost internet access” for customers around the globe. The main payload for Saturday’s mission from Vandenberg Air Force Base will be the Spanish government’s “Paz” satellite, which was “designed to capture imagery of the Earth down to the single-meter scale,” but the two Starlink satellites will be launched as a secondary payload. In its launch license application in November, SpaceX had envisioned the mission “proving out the development of the satellite bus and related subsystems,” as well as validating the “design of a phased array broadband antenna communications platform.”
More Info (CNET News)